Month: March 2020

After our first Junior park run I Stu dropped me off at the entrance on the train towards Poolsbrook country park and off I went with 18 miles planned. I had planned to do round Poolsbrook then back along the trail to Rothervalley including a few loops to make up the mileage needed for today’s training run.

As I set off I just didn’t feel right and as Stu pulled away in the car I felt almost a panic, not sure why but determined I needed to get these runs in with the weeks quickly passing and the starting date getting nearer I pushed on down the track finding my pace.

As I hit Pools brook I decided to do two laps round as knew i’d need to make up for the lack of millage down the track having started in Stavely, then headed back along the track towards Rothervalley about 4.5 miles in I could feel my knee starting to hurt something which was greatly worrying me know so I made the decision when I got to the turn off on the track for home I would reluctantly make my way back and have to admit defeat at just 8.5 miles 🙁

I felt like my legs had the strength to go on for many more miles but that niggling in my right knee I knew would be extremely painful if I pushed through and carried on.

So I returned home where I iced the knee area before pending the day feeling sorry for myself, could this be the turning point in my training, Had I not done enough strength training, was Manchester even going to happen.

I decided after lots of forum advice to seek a physio out first thing in the morning after all I was no professional and could be making a mountain out of a mole hill. Ill keep you posted on the out come!

 

Proud mummy day today, although every day is proud mummy day for me today was even more so.

We attended our first Junior park run together.

Although Suzie cant register as an official runner so no time or bar code scanned we were told we could go along and run as much or little as we liked.

Watching her get so excited about running with mummy and wearing her cookie monsters really put a smile on my face.

We arrived at the Stavely Junior park run and was instantly made to feel welcome. I had already volunteered Stu to help out as a Marshall as they were short of helpers and he was only going to be standing around any way so might as well be of use.

He was handed a bright bib, whistle and neck chain with official Marshall on it before beginning given his position at the far end of the field across the sludge to his delight.

We gathered for a small warm up pre run before heading to the start line for the count down and we were off. The full route was 4 laps around the field. I could feel Suzie getting excited as we set off and had warn her to go slow we had a long way to go. We ran around and it wasn’t long before we were passing stu for the first time. Shortly after their was a particular boggy area we plotted our way round for least slippage before continuing past the finish tunnel onto our second lap.

Suzie high fived her daddy as we passed him for the second time and crossed the lap marker for the second time as we started to just get past Stu again for the third time Suzie told me she was very tired bless her and at this point I realised 3 laps would be our goal this week so as we came to the lap marker again she ran through the tunnel to the finish!

So proud of her for completing 3 fab laps of her first Junior park run and secretly I think Stu enjoyed helping out and wearing his gear.

Tonight I attended my first Sports massage. Although this isn’t a training run I thought it worth blogging for those of you who may be interested but never took up the courage to book one. Its also part and parcel of my training.

I’ve been saying for awhile I needed to book and look into sports massage but it’s been one of those to do things that I’ve never got the courage to go ahead and book.

So when Sharon tagged me in  Keep Active Muscle Therapy’s Facebook post offering a free sports massage I thought what have I got to lose.

I really was not sure what to expect to be honest. Having heard horror stories about sports massage and how painful it was I was a little nervous.

From the minute I stepped in the door I was made to feel welcome by Sian and Simon.

After going through some routine health questions and asking if I had any particular areas of concern etc, Sian took me into a conservatory area and explained the process.

As she went through the sports massage she explained what she was working on and the reasons. I’d love to be able to tell you all those big long words and body parts she was mentioning but the minute she’d said them I forgot lol. I was forewarned it wasn’t like a spa type massage and was meant to work the muscles to rid of any tightness and knots but was also told it was as brutal as i’d probably heard.

When we had finished I was given some advice on using sports balls along my legs after runs to prevent tightness (something I had been looking at prior to the massage so ordered as soon as I returned home) and I booked back in for another one on the 11th. I was advised if running tomorrow to only do a light low millage run even if I felt OK which was perfect as running with the Handsworth RoadHog ladies would enable me to do this.

I left feeling ok not hurting in any way. It was only about an hour and half later that it really hit me. My legs felt they had been running for miles and miles but without actually doing it and I felt exhausted and dehydrated in a wired way.

Definitely early night tonight.

 

 

 

 

 

17 Miles today and have to be honest legs feeling tight in the back of the calves and heavy really isn’t filling me with positivity for the mileage ahead. My legs haven’t felt like this for a couple of weeks and no idea why they’ve started again, just hoping like in the past once I get going they will keep carrying me.

I woke this morning to discover no bananas left in the fruit bowl! That’s just porridge this morning then! As you can imagine not a happy bunny I like my pre run banana, but with no shops opening till 11am hoping it dose not have too much of an effect on my run today fuel wise.

I was hoping for a dry day today, no such look! As I gazed out the patio windows whilst eating my porridge it was absolutely throwing it down, on the plus side the wind didn’t look too bad. I suppose you cant have everything and the weather could be anything in April.

After breakfast on went the gear and I set my rucksack up whilst waiting for the porridge to settle.

I’d planned in to try using some gels further into the run today alongside Tailwind to see if this would sort the hunger issues I’d had in past two long runs.

After some pre run stretching I set off down the trail towards the canal, my aim at least 16 miles today but really wanted to see 17.

The rain had stopped and in fairness after about 3 miles in I needed to remove my gloves due to things warming up. I fell into my comfortable marathon pace more or less straight away knowing I had many miles to cover I didn’t want to go to quick.

I seemed to reach Renishaw and then the turning for towards the canal so quick today that I had to double check my watch in case I was going quicker than I thought. It turns out I wasn’t.

Running along side the canal made me realise how much rain we had had the past few days and the effects the canal was almost touching the pathway in some places and about 4.5 miles into my run I was faced with raging waters coming from the field into the canal straight across my pathway, no exaggeration this was a welly job to cross. I held onto the fence as the current of the flowing water was quiet strong. The last thing I needed was a damage foot or ankle. After a couple of seconds analysing the situation I realised their was no choice but to go through it and grin and bear the wet feet for the remainder of the run. I was going to take a picture of the water gushing from the field into the canal but by the time I got back to that part it had gone and there wasn’t even really a puddle!

After that I decided with feet sodden no need to hop my around the bigger puddles and just ran through them. It was nice to run along the canal for a change of scenery past Hollingwood hub and onto tapton lock.

It was about mile 9 ish after having turned around at Tapton lock to run the route back home, I started to feel the twinge in my knee, the one that had been popping up in on some of my longer runs recently on the outside of my knee. I knew the mileage I was doing was getting longer, so never expected to not feel any aches or pains throughout training but this just didn’t feel right.

For the first few miles it was there but didn’t really have an effect on my running then it started getting sorer and by mile 15 every time my foot hit the floor I could feel it. At times I felt like like my heel on my right foot was pushing out but my knee was pushing inwards almost like they were fighting against each other.

Although my legs and lungs in them self felt strong and able to carry me so much further, the last mile up home really did take its toll on my knee and I was pleased when I walked into the back garden.

I cooled down and stretched before going into the house and that’s when the soreness really hit me. Simple things climbing up and down stairs was really sore. Something told me this wasn’t just fatigued legs from the mileage ran this was something more troublesome and I should listen to my body. Ice, rest and maybe some googling needed although deep in my thoughts I think I always knew it was ITT band related but with 6 weeks to go so didn’t want to hear everyone’s or no running for several weeks even months to heal it I didn’t have that time.